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Edmonton firefighters were on scene at several grassfires Friday, battling against conditions ideal for fires to quickly get out of control.
“One of the concerns we all have, whether you’re a resident or you’re a part of Edmonton Fire Rescue Services, is that it’s very, very tinder dry at this point,” said District Fire Chief Brian Williams.
“The temperatures are coming up and now we’ve got high winds.”
Williams was on the scene at a grassfire near 137th Avenue and Mark Messier Trail just after 9:30 a.m. It is believed the fire started in an encampment and conditions spread it over a larger area.
Crews had the fire under control and contained within an hour of arriving.
A few other fires were reported along Winterburn Road in west Edmonton early Friday afternoon, at least one of which was also believed to have been started in an encampment.
Later in the afternoon, around 2:30 p.m, a large grass fire took off across fields in the city’s far northeast, north of Manning Drive near 227 Avenue NW and Meridian Street NW.
Edmonton Fire Rescue Services said ten units were dispatched to that blaze. There are no fire hydrants in the rural area so tankers were forced to regularly go reload with more water.
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The fires occurred the same day the city conducted a prescribed burn in Jan Reimer Park, located on the west end across the North Saskatchewan River from the Terwillegar dog park.
“It’s an 18-hectare burn,” said EFRS operations assistant deputy chief Neil Robertson.
“It’s quite a bit larger than the burns we’ve done in the past and it gives us an opportunity with some pretty good safety features around here to go as we’re going on.”
In a news release, the city said the burn was done as a part of its wildfire prevention effort to “proactively reduce wildfire risk.”
“Prescribed burns reduce wildfire fuel, help prevent high-intensity fires, return important nutrients to the ecosystem and increase biodiversity that supports habitat enhancement,” the release added.
Williams said the biggest message to people is to stay vigilant, and to think about what could happen if planning an outside fire.
“Be safe, because we want to have a better summer than what we’ve had in the past,” Williams said.
“It’s been a busy few summers, for sure. We just don’t want to see any more.”
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
